


The Gun Changes Everything

by KyraEllis



Category: Orange is the New Black
Genre: Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-12
Packaged: 2018-08-13 19:25:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7983385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KyraEllis/pseuds/KyraEllis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daya finds herself in possession of an officer's gun after a prison riot, and all eyes are on her. What will she do with the power?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_The gun changes everything._

Daya was aware of this single, powerful thought even as the screams of the women of Litchfield roared all around her.

"Kill him!"

"Off that motherfucker!"

"Get 'em Daya, get that _pendejo_ for all the shit he's done to us!"

She heard each voice as one monster rising up and out of herself and arcing in the air toward the prison guard. He was on the floor, finally subdued, finally looking humble and scared and fucking human after all the ways he had denied them their own humanity. She wanted to do it so bad.

She wanted to see his brains explode out onto the floor and for the world to know that she wasn't just some nice Dominican girl from New York. She was a force of nature.

And yet she knew that shooting the guy wasn't going to be the end of it. It wouldn't be the perfect ending she envisioned, the quiet blowing out of a candle at the end of a too-long day. She knew the minute she used the weapon she could be sure she would never be getting out, never seeing her annoying-ass mother or her beautiful baby girl again. Daya needed time to think.

"Somebody find some rope!" she shouted to her left. She knew her gang would back her up. She'd seen some approving nods as she picked up the gun, a new respect settling into their eyes when she decided not to give it up, when they realized she wanted to write the story of what happened next. Daya knew that now she could get the girls to do whatever she wanted them to. It was this feeling, the dominance, the owning of the entire prison with one swift motion that she wanted to prolong.

"This gonna work Daya?" The _chingona_ had come back with dental floss, because yeah this was a fucking prison after all. It wasn't like they let the women sit around and make nooses for themselves after daily chores.

"Whateva," she said, "Just put it on him. Tie his hands and his legs up real good, because we got shit to figure out. We're gonna have ourselves a good old-fashioned summit right now."


	2. Girls Deciding Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daya starts a summit to figure out what to do with the captured prison guard.

"Girls deciding things, that's what this is now," said Daya, daring anyone to say otherwise. Everyone was looking at her, but no one seemed to be squeamish about the fact that the guard's hands were getting tied together behind his back.

"So here's what we're gonna do," she said. "Everyone is going to have a chance to say their piece about what happens next. Do you want Mr. Shitface here to meet his end, or do you want to let him go and hope he doesn't fuck us all over in the end? We don't got all day though, so make it fast. Caputo will be up in this shit before we know it."

Daya waved the gun toward Taystee. "Go ahead, your group just lost someone important, so you can go first. Anyone from your cell block wants to say a piece, they got a chance to say it now." Taystee nodded her head once, then turned to confer with her group. Daya didn't spend much time with the black inmates, but even she could see that Taystee had a gravity to her expression and movements that wasn't there before. The loss of Poussey was weighing heavily on the whole group.

The other inmates all turned to their own groups to discuss, while Taystee and her crew considered. Daya held the gun steady at the guard's face. No way this motherfucker was going to get up and move around on her watch. He had started to look comfortable, almost smug again, and she didn't like it.

She walked right up to him and touched the gun to his forehead. The slight smile wiped off his face faster than a slap. "That's right, don't get too comfortable, _sir_." She ground the gun into his forehead a little with the ironic twist of the world. Her mother wouldn't know who she was.

"Alright, so here's how we be thinking," said Taystee finally. The other group discussions quieted down. Even Crazy Eyes wasn't talking to herself or making noises as usual. Taystee spoke up, "So we don't know what's going to happen if this fool gets offed. Like as not, one of our crew gonna get blamed for it. They'll see it as some sort of retaliation or something. And we clearly can't let this motherfucker go free after all the shit he's been inciting in here. We got another idea though. We say we keep his ass for ransom and see what kind of changes we can get around here from Caputo. I got his ear. He'd do anything to make something like this go away. He'll give us whatever we want."

Daya knew the decision was made as she heard the other groups murmuring and shaking their heads in agreement.

"Yeah! Keep him for ransom, and see how he likes that!"

"Can't promise he'll be treated none too nice either."

Some of the women just laughed. And the prison guard looked horrified.


	3. A Calm Settled Over the Prison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guard is subdued, then Taystee and Daya have an initial conversation with Caputo.

A calm settled over the prison. They decided as a group to let the other prison guard, the woman go. She wasn't the one that they needed to deal with, and she seemed happy enough to scamper out the doors of the main hallway to a safer area beyond the bulletproof glass.

"Don't you dare say a fucking word to nobody," said Daya before waving her through the doors. The lady guard shook her head emphatically, and Daya knew that they didn't have anything to worry about. If the higher ups at MCC or someone at the newspaper got a sense of what was going on here it wouldn't be because of her.

Once they were down to the single male prison guard Taystee went to find a phone to get Caputo on the line.

" _Oye_ , Red," said Daya with a nod of her head in the direction of the white camp. "You want to watch over this _puto_ while I go with Taystee to talk to Caputo?"

Red raised a perfectly penciled-in eyebrow and let go a bright and scary smile. "Gladly," she said. Daya handed her the gun and followed down the hallway that Taystee had disappeared down.

***

To say that Caputo was pissed was to say that a cat is gently bothered by being doused with water.

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" he was yelling as Daya walked into the office. Taystee had him on speakerphone for her benefit.

"Look Mr. Caputo," said Taystee. "We _tried_ to tell you what kind of fool shit was going on around here, but you never listened. Just because you couldn't be bothered to deal with some of these situations before they unfolded to a point we got here, doesn't mean there weren't quite a few canaries chirping away in the coal mine."

Caputo was blustering. "Jefferson, I know that you're angry and concerned about some of the changes that MCC has been making lately, but this is _not_ the way to handle your frustration. Do you want to get your sentence tripled?! Just think for a second about what you're doing."

Daya stepped up to the phone. "No you stop and think Caputo. It might be all fine and dandy where you are up in those big MCC offices, but here we gotta deal with this shit everyday and we're done with it. Somebody fucking died in here. Don't you give a rat's ass about that?" Taystee nodded her her head in agreement with her arms crossed.

Caputo tried to say something else, but Daya cut him off, "Here's how it's going to go Caputo. We're going to come up with some demands and then you're going to say yes to them. Every single one. Do that and maybe we won't let the world outside know about how you completely lost control of your own prison. Try finding another job after that, yeah?"

"That's absolutely ridiculous," said Caputo. "Do you know what kind of—"

"Joe, who is that?" Daya and Taystee heard the unmistakable voice of Fig cut into the conversation.

"Nothing," said Caputo, "Don't worry about it!" Fig was still saying something in the background.

"Say yes, that's all you got to remember," said Taystee. "And don't bother trying to call us back." She depressed the little lever to hang up the receiver. "We'll call you."


	4. So What Should We Ask For?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taystee and Daya figure out what to ask Caputo.

"So what should we ask for?" Taystee looked thoughtful, still holding a finger to the phone. It rang again almost immediately, but both she and Daya ignored it.

"Good question," said Daya. "It's been a while since I felt like I had this much power over anything."

Taystee sat down in the chair behind the desk. "Choice is tough when you finally got it after asking too long," she admitted. Daya nodded.

"I mean I don't know about you, but the one thing I really want is to get out of this shithole. And I bet most of the other ladies feel the same."

Daya still surprised herself with the hard words that came out of her mouth. Things just hadn't been the same since her mother got discharged. It was like all of a sudden Daya had to figure out who she wanted to be at Litchfield and who she wanted to get tight with. These things sometimes meant change. Even if her mother would be surprised, Daya was discovering how to survive at the prison on her own, and that was a big deal.

Now she had the chance to maybe gain some real status in this place, and she figured she knew just the right way to do that. "I think we should ask him to cut all of our sentences in half," she said.

Taystee looked surprised, but approving. "Can he even do that?" she asked. The phone rang again. They both watched the black plastic machine until it was silent once more.

"I bet it'll be a hell of a headache, but I'm sure he can figure something out if he pulls the right strings. Hell, it seems like he's sleeping with all the women in higher-ups."

"Good point," said Taystee. She thought for a moment. "You know at first I was tempted to have us go back out there and ask all the ladies what they want. But I think that you may just have found the one thing that no one would fight over. Let's get Caputo back on the phone before he breaks the damn thing."

The phone rang a third time as if on cue, and this time Daya picked up the receiver.


	5. Alright Caputo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daya and Taystee reveal their demands to Caputo.

"Alright Caputo, here's how it's going to go," said Daya. Even before she could finish her sentence Caputo was trying to get his words out.

"Diaz and Jefferson you are done!" he sputtered. "Do you even know how much deep shit you are in right now?" His voice grew louder over the speakerphone, and Daya saw Taystee flinch instinctively. It must be hard to have been working for Caputo so recently and to now be defying his every word.

Daya cut in, "No _you_ are the one whose done Caputo. You can yell all you want, but look where that's got you so far. We're still in the prison with the guard under ransom, and you're still stuck on the other side of the phone with your pants down by your ankles. What are you gonna do about that?"

The logic must have sunk in with Caputo, because he fell silent for the first time. Taystee took the opportunity to cut in with their demands. "Alright Caputo, here's what we want. Litchfield isn't a good look for most of us in here. We've learned a lot of lessons, and we're not gonna be a threat to anyone coming out of the system. We just want to get back to our lives at home. Rebuild. Be normal again. So what we are requiring from you in order to get your prison back is that you let us go early. All of us. Half sentences or the guard doesn't make it out of here alive, and we'll tell everyone exactly how it went down. You don't want to live with that on your conscience, do you Caputo?"

"Out of the question," said Caputo. "That is absolutely _not_ how this works. You don't get to make demands of me! You just get to hope none of this comes back to bite you in the ass tomorrow." But both women could tell that his threats were empty now. At this point it seemed to Daya that the man was just trying to conserve a shred of his dignity.

"Caputo," said Daya. "Enough." And that was the way it ended. The silence at the other end of the line let her know that they had won.

Finally, Caputo said in the most weary and quiet voice that Daya had ever heard, "Okay."


	6. It Was Done

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ransom drama comes to an end.

It was done. Caputo had agreed to a reduced sentence for all the inmates in order to get himself out of the doghouse. Daya and Taystee soaked up the victory, but tried not to sound too triumphant. They had won. They looked at each other over the speakerphone and smiled for the first time throughout this whole ordeal.

"I know you girls are smiling over there," said Caputo. "But don't think that the balance of power has shifted one bit."

"Of course Caputo," said Daya. "We know who's still in charge of this place." She rolled her eyes at Taystee as she said it.

"Ditto," said Taystee with a grin. "I'm gonna go tell our fine audience what the news is," she said, and walked out the door back to the corridor.

Caputo cleared his throat on the phone. "Hey Diaz," he said. "You still there?"

"Yeah," she answered.

"Diaz, I just want you to know that I get how this all went down. I can hear the brains when she's speaking to me. I know you planned this whole thing. I'd watch your back from now on if I were you. You're not quite the girl your mother thought you were."

"That's right," said Daya. "You got that right. I'm definitely not the girl she saw."

She hung up the call.


End file.
